The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to an activity browser.
Business applications aid users in performing their activities within an enterprise. For example, a business application may guide a user through the steps of a certain business process in a certain order, such as hiring a new employee. A business application uses multiple services. For different steps in a business process the business application may provide the user with one or more services at a user interface, such as filling in and submitting a form to a database (e.g., with the new employees, name, address, and so forth), and ordering items (e.g., a workplace for the new employee, and so forth).
Typically, a service is implemented as a set of procedures or functions hosted on a computer server connected to network. A computer on which the business application is running can request data from the server by submitting a set of parameters to the set of procedures or functions on the server. Services can be implemented as Web services, which allow a user of a web browser to request extended markup language (XML) data from the server by submitting parameters to the server. Web services (sometimes called application services) are services (usually including some combination of programming and data, but possibly including human resources as well) that are made available from a business's Web server for Web users or other Web-connected programs. Web services include major services like storage management and customer relationship management (CRM) to more limited services, such as furnishing a stock quote and checking bids for an auction item.
Most business applications have a low ease of use. Different services each have a specific interface to a user in which different data is provided data to the user. Hence, it is difficult for a user of the business applications to gather from the data provided by the respective services, the information related to a certain task, activity, or other business situation role within an enterprise.